In 1950s North Vietnam, Marcel Văn was arrested by the Communist authorities and, after he would not admit to a crime, however small, that he had not actually committed, eventually transferred to a re-education camp. Years later, the government destroyed all evidence of these re-education camps by constructing a large dam and flooding the entire area. The body of Marcel, who died of tuberculosis in the camp, lies perhaps at the bottom of this artificial lake, created for the purpose of hiding evil.

Before he died, Marcel once tried to escape – with the express purpose of coming back. (He tried, but he was caught.) His fellow prisoners, many of whom were Catholic, had been without the sacraments for weeks, months, or years. He intended to go, find a priest, and bring back to the re-education camp his beloved Jesus in the consecrated hosts.

During his time in the re-education camp, one thing he wrote to the outside world is,

Our souls are thirsty for the divine nourishment.

It was not just Marcel who wanted the communicate. It was Marcel and his friends, his brothers and sisters, his neighbours, his fellow human beings on the road and thrust into the deep mud of the re-education camp. Not for a minute did Marcel think only, “I want to go to Mass, to the Eucharist, to communicate…” Instead, he said and risked his life (and freedom) to say that “our souls are thirsty.”

And aren’t they all?